A lemon for a lemon, an orange for a orange
by AlandrasChaos
Summary: After staying with Melina briefly, Teyshan the Prothean must quickly figure out which foods are safe to eat otherwise his hunger might take over. Early amusing side story from "When the Seas Turn Red, My Hailed Hero"


**A lemon for a lemon, a orange for a orange.**

"Alright Teyshan, now that you've been awake for some time I suppose you are getting hungry." Melina asked curiously to her new guest. Her brown hues searching for any little semblance of emotion from the Prothean.

"Yes" He simply answered.

"Ok…"

The woman looked a bit confused. The Prothean never answered her questions in full. From what little time he had spent with her, he had been awfully closed off. That irritated the woman, but deep inside she knew she had to be patient with him. He just woke up after all and was in just as much shock about the world as she was over him even being alive. Drumming her fingers on the kitchen counter, the woman immediately stopped when the Prothean shot her a sharp glare. Sighing inwardly, Melina shrugged.

"Well.. What kinds of things did you eat during your time?" the woman absently rubbed her forehead.

"Nothing you have now human, I doubt your Asari friend would appreciate me trying to eat her Turian guards or Salarian partner."

Melina suddenly burst out in a fit of laughter, covering her face with her hands. She couldn't believe what the Prothean was telling her. Did he honestly think of eating the Turian security guards or Diane's friend? This was all a lot to take in. The woman was not trying to be rude to her guest but the fact he even suggested it was a bit ridiculous. Everyone just didn't go around eating each other. Unless you were a Vorcha, then it didn't matter if you were a sentient being or garbage. Trying to hold off the remaining giggles the woman lowered her hands and looked over at her guest.

"I apologize for that. You can't be serious about eating Turians or Salarians. You didn't really eat them did you?" A strange sense of curiosity was growing from Melina.

"Yes."

"Ok.. Well that really isn't an option now. I do have a load of various foods in my fridge if you'd like to try them out. Maybe we can find something." Melina suggested, one of her brows raising.

The Prothean didn't look at the woman, all four golden eyes seemed to be gazing right over her at her fridge. Moving away from the corner of the room, Teyshan promptly reached out to the fridge door and pulled it open. Melina quickly moved out of the way, her eyes scanning over to see what the Prothean could possibly pick out. Out of all things that alien hand reached for, wasn't stake like the woman had thought but a very yellow looking fruit.

Before the woman had the chance to even warn the Prothean about what he was going to eat, Teyshan took a rather large bite out of the lemon he grabbed. The stern look the Prothean's face held for some time had suddenly twisted up into a disgusted mound. His top lip pulled back, baring his unique looking teeth. All four golden eyes closed tightly, the sting from the lemon caused the Prothean to drop the lemon to the floor.

"What is this foul food!" Teyshan scoffed, shaking his head and running his fingers over his tongue to wipe off what little bits of lemon remained.

"That.. Is what we humans call a lemon." Melina chuckled, reaching down to pick up the half bitten lemon off the floor and throwing it into the trash bin next to her.

"I don't understand why you humans would have this lemon food in with what you eat. It must be poisonous." Teyshan sharply protested.

"No it's not poisonous, its just very bitter." Melina shook her head. The woman slowly leaned closer towards the Prothean, reaching into the fridge and pulling out and orange. A bright smile spreading acrossed her face. All of this had been a small form of entertainment to the woman. The Prothean was stubborn and quick to jump the gun on situations. Hopefully eating the lemon would teach him to not just pick things up and eat them. Much like a small child.

"Will this taste the same human" Teyshan asked

"Melina" the woman corrected him.

"Yes, Melina."

"No it will not, most people find oranges very enjoyable to eat. Lemon's are often used for juices, garnishes or to give many foods a bit of zest." The woman brightly smiled as she pealed the skin off the orange.

Blinking a few times the Prothean only closed his mouth and sighed softly. All of this had been a lot for him to take in, all at the expense of his own honor. The woman kept giggling at his antics. How did he end up getting stuck with such an annoying woman after all this time. He would be better suited to staying with the brain dead Asari this woman was friends with. Hopefully then he could eat the Salarian and have a real meal instead of the poisonous lemon. Breaking him out of this thought, Melina held up the peeled orange to Teyshan to take. Hesitant about her offering, the Prothean gently picked the orange up out of her hand and popped a wedge into his mouth. His face a bit twisted and tight for fear the fruit would be as sour, yet it wasn't. The flavors reminded him of an old fruit back in his time. A bit tangy and sweet. Taking another wedge the Prothean seemingly happily munched away at the fruit much to Melina's surprise.

"I was half expecting you to spit that out and call it poison as well. This is progress!" The woman softly chuckled.

"You Melina, are less annoying now that you have not tried to poison me with your food." Teyshan's voice rumbled.

"Is this humor I am hearing from you?" Melina giggled, cupping her hand to her ear. This had caused the Prothean to only shake his head, taking another wedge of the orange and promptly eating it.

"And from what I recall, you were the one who picked the lemon. I didn't force you to take the lemon. That was all your choice. So you tried to poison yourself" The woman joked.

Teyshan slowly turned away from the woman, trying to ignore the fact she was all smiles and giggles over his poor choice. Reaching into the fridge once more, the Prothean rummaged around, ignoring any and all foods that were yellow in color.

"What is this?" The Prothean asked holding up a red fruit.

"That's an apple, it goes good with caramel" Melina sneered.

"Is this apple bitter like your yellow lemons?" Teyshan's top lip pulled back in disgust.

"No, its even sweeter then the orange." The woman chuckled.

Putting the apple down on the counter, Teyshan moved around bottles of soda and suddenly stopped in his digging. His golden eyes widened at the glorious site. Growing with curiosity, the woman peered over the Prothean's shoulder, as much as his giant pauldron would allow her to.

"What is it, what do you see?" Melina inquired.

The Prothean didn't answer, reaching into the fridge, he pulled out a package of salmon, ready to be grilled. Two of his golden eyes darted over to Melina's form.

"This, what is this? What do you call this? I want this" Teyshan's sub harmonics grew tight.

"That.. My friend is called a salmon. It's fish, an aquatic animal" Melina smiled wide towards him. "Did you know, I was saving that lemon for the salmon. It adds flavor. Yet you decided to eat it. You know how hard it is to get lemons these days?" The woman laughed once again.

"No."

"Well it is, and you ate it. So I will just have to grill up the salmon without the lemon and hope you'll like it just as much." Melina slowly pulled the packaged salmon out of the Prothean's hands and placed it down on the counter.

"So I'm guessing, you are wanting apples and salmon for dinner."

"Yes." The Prothean quickly replied. Since digging through her fridge and having a small orange to eat, he seemed to relax around her long enough to not feel like she was going to get skinned alive. Looking softly up at her guest, the woman's irritations towards him and quickly bubbled away. The little time she had spent with him, she could tell he had a sense of humor, so this was going to be an interesting experience trying to live with him. She knew from now on to not press for answers and to help guide and help him in this new world and she was quite alright with that. He was a quick learner.

 **Authors Note:**

 **I have been away for to long. As you can guess, this story takes place around chapter two of my other story 'My Hailed Hero' I felt like writing a small off shot ficlit to apologize for putting my other story off for so long. You guys are the best and I hoped you enjoyed this light hearted amusing story. I might go ahead and write more when I get the time after I finish my main story. I'm working on Chapter Ten as we speak! Until then, much love**


End file.
